ROCKFORD — Part of the mystery of faith is why some young men are summoned by God to be priests.

But it’s no mystery these days that fewer Catholics are answering the call.

Nationally, the number of diocesan priests in United States fell by 25.7 percent between 1965 and 2012, even as the number of Catholics increased 45.4 percent. During the same period, the number of diocesan priests in Rockford increased 7.1 percent.

Rockford diocesan officials say the clergy work force here is in better shape than in the national church.

But in meeting with journalists this month, Bishop David J. Malloy said vocations — a term that refers to people who answer the call to religious life — will be a focal point of his second year as spiritual leader of the region’s 390,000 Catholics.

“It’s a comment that Pope John Paul II made during his pontificate that stuck with me, that healthy faith communities continue to produce their own vocations,” said Malloy, who was installed as bishop May 14, 2012.

“It is a sign of health. It’s like taking your temperature and finding that your temperature is right.”

One challenge to developing potential priests: “Our materialist and secular age that would make a young man less and less inclined to listen to that subtle calling in his heart from the Holy Spirit.”

The number of priests has remained relatively stable — 182 diocesan priests in 2012 versus 170 in 1965 — but the makeup of Rockford’s clergy has become dramatically grayer.

The number of active diocesan priests is down 20 percent since 1965, and the number of retired priests has increased sixfold to 53.

And the clergy work force does not reflect the diocese’s faithful, nearly half of whom are Hispanic. There are 24 priests of Hispanic descent in the diocese, just more than 13 percent of the total, although many parishes offer Mass in Spanish.

Twenty-two seminarians are studying to become diocesan priests.

“As far as the ages of priests, the typical priest, designated by the median, is 49 years old and has been ordained 14 years,” said Michael Cieslak, director of research and planning for the diocese. “These statistics are considerably different from the typical U.S. diocese, which has relatively fewer and older priests.”

Many priests who were ordained during the post-World War II years are dying or are in poor health and unable to serve.

“We’re seeing a dramatic decline in the number of priests, but it’s largely due to a large number who entered the priesthood in the ’50s and ’60s,” said Mary Gautier, a senior research associate for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

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The number of U.S. seminarians has remained fairly stable the past couple of decades, she said, but they represent about a third of those needed to reverse the decline.

“I’ve ordained more priests than I have buried in my 19 years,” he said.

Under Doran, the diocese took an unusual approach toward developing priests. It advertised.

The campaign in the late 1990s featured billboards and television ads on MTV and Comedy Central, which were popular with young men. The campaign went viral; it was picked up by national and international news organizations and was featured on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which did an interview with the Rev. Martin Heinz, who had come up with the idea while working for the diocese’s office of vocations.

The campaign generated plenty of publicity for the diocese, but its impact was not measured.

“The campaign may have started some young men thinking, and some of them may have taken the next step in their discernment process,” Cieslak said. “Some of these may have become seminarians and some may have been ordained to the Diocese of Rockford. It is also possible that some men who saw the ads became religious-order priests.”

Today, ad campaigns have given way to personal invitations from priests to young people to explore the life of a priest or nun.

The diocese offers three summer camps — one for young women, one for middle school boys, one for high school and college-age males — who want to know more.

The Rev. Keith Romke, 28, attended the First Call Vocation Camp when he was 18. He served Mass for the first time at camp.

“Immediately after Communion, I went up toward that altar to pour water into the chalice that the priest was holding out in front of me,” said Romke, who grew up in Elgin. “He said, ‘Be generous, pour it all.’ He of course was talking about the water, but an immense peace came over me, and at that moment I knew that God was calling me to ‘be generous’ and to pour out all of my life for the church.”

Three weeks after the camp, Romke entered the seminary.

He’s in charge of the vocation office, which runs the camps and works with Catholics who have been called to service. He’s one of three diocesan priests younger than 30. His job is to travel throughout the diocese, which stretches between the Fox and Mississippi rivers, encourage young people to listen for God’s call and invite them learn what it’s like to be a priest.

“The main goal of these camps is to allow them to see that priests and seminarians are happy and joyful as they serve God and that we are just ‘regular guys’,” he said.

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“By that I mean that we don’t just sit around and pray 24 hours a day and that we don’t live boring lives. Rather, just like other men that they know, like their fathers or uncles, we enjoy playing or watching sports, enjoying a good movie, playing cards or just having some wholesome conversations.”